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Gordk there are now, and always have been permits available for using drones for research and safety related issues.
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No Drones. I can't believe you even brought this up, perhaps you haven't been on this site for long. Keep your drones in the City, Algonquin park is a sacred place, to get away from the modern life and all if it's problems. This is exactly why long time Algonquin trippers have stopped going to the park and are travelling parks farther north.
Skeeter.
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Maybe the damage has been done - there are now (early 2021 onwards) drone videos on Google's youtube offerings.
Just passing through... looking for campsite pictures actually.
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Advances in technology are always happening. Not quite sure what people are expecting in a public place? Do we represent all people that go into parks? Think not. Times are changing, we went from written tales and drawings to cameras and video of all types. Just wait for the live google earth just in time viewing. Don't kid your self that's on its way to a park near you.
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My days of tripping to APP are numbered I have no illusions about that.
My trips will at some point need to head further north in order to avoid a whole slew of increasingly negative changes.Technology only being one. It is unfortunate but unavoidable.
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i hear you loud and clear S.D. ,,
as i have stated here before (especially after last summer's crowds) algonquin is a 4/6 hour drive for 4/6 million people,, camp site reviews and profiles that are available on line , will almost certainly ensure that these little campsite gems will get the shit kicked out of them as the word gets out. nice sites will have trees removed, shoreline erosion, garbage, thunder box problems,. and smell like piss!! dog shit all over. and fire rings being moved,
there is too much info out there,, i am the only one that can figure this out,,, loose lips sink ships,,
nothing left to explore?
Last edited by swedish pimple (2/14/2021 8:28 pm)
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I don’t think it’s really debatable Swedish. It will become less attractive, just like it is less attractive now then it was in the 1970s. At least from what I value in a trip.
Personally, I’m not too worried about it. It’s still a fantastic place to spend time. I have 6 trips planned there this year. Long term I should be retired in 5-7 years at which point the amount of time it takes to drive to my chosen paddling location will be irrelevant. I will have likely explored most of APP at that point as well and looking to hit up new areas.
Last edited by ShawnD (2/15/2021 11:04 am)
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The only time I have seen a drone in the wilderness was when camping on a crown land lake. The operator was sufficiently courteous so far as privacy was concerned, but that didn’t stop it from being incredibly annoying. I go canoe camping to get away from motors and engines if at all possible, and even a respectfully operated drone shatters that peace. I’m fully in support of the park wide ban.
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Although I have watched lots of video, I have only seen a drone three times: (1) a hydro technician or inspector had one; I assume they sometimes use them to look at wires or insulators up close. (2) one was used at Sunnybrook Hospital to record some sort of promotional or fundraising video.
(3) A couple of days ago I was coming out of a supermarket near Don Mills Rd. and Lawrence Ave. E. here in Toronto. It was dusk and the light was fading but it wasn't quite dark yet. I noticed a whining, buzzy sound that I could not place - I thought perhaps someone had a cordless vacuum and was using it in the parking lot? Then I spotted the glowing red LED pilot light as the thing swerved mostly north and south along Don Mills or the adjacent sidewalk. It swerved a lot and veered up and down wildly in a crazy-looking attempt at controlled flight. Then it landed at the edge of the parking lot and nothing happened for at least half a minute and I was close to thinking "oh boy, a lost drone!!!". But a guy showed up - I think he had been on the sidewalk - and he picked it up and got into a car.
Not a very inspiring display.
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One of the most stressful and disappointing experiences we had recently in AP was mid-way through a 13-day backpacking trip on Western Uplands. As we approached a beautiful peaceful meadow, we were puzzled with the annoying (technological non-nature) sound that, at first, wasn't identifiable. Then a drone buzzed by us, totally ruining our experience. The noise is just incredibly annoying - not what people go interior to hear. The young folks were very defensive and were just "filming a movie", they said. In our overly technological, industrialized world, it is so hard to get away from noise pollution, that hearing a drone in AP backcountry is beyond awful, IMHO. There is a good bit of research on this - that we are losing places that have only natural sound. This disrupts animal behaviour and is unnecessary noise pollution. I wish we'd known, at the time, that drones were banned. The drone operators were adamant they could do whatever the hell they wanted, despite our attempts to persuade/educate. It was one of the most angering experiences I've had in AP.
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I suppose the least they could have done was supply some free beer with their apology... oops, can and bottle ban, I forgot.
After a few days in the woods you quickly forget the outside world.
Does beer come in recyclable Tetra-Paks? I think wine does. 
I had a "noise" experience once at Provoking Lake. It was... early 1980's maybe, back when the air force was doing low-level flights in the NWT and possibly Labrador, and the natives were quite unhappy about it. I didn't give it much thought until it happened to me.
It was a cloudy, cold day in early May and the water was choppy. I was just standing on some large rocks next to the water, when all of a sudden there this concentrated (like) rising sound of wind coming, source unknown. The sound volume rose really fast and then built to a crescendo, a roar like nothing I have ever experienced, and it kept increasing. Expecting a tornado or hurricane (or something!) I turned my head thinking mostly about shelter. At that moment a large, twin engined, gray-green camouflaged military aircraft buzzed the lake directly overhead in a roughly NE > SW direction. I was 100% motivated to hit the deck, it was so low! It looked like a vaguely like a Hercules (they make the ground shake too, at the moment of take-off) but it was obviously smaller. I tell you, I wanted to eat dirt except I was standing on large rocks.
I've been buzzed by the RAF Vulcan and I spent 3 weeks at CFB Bagotville when I was a kid - Voodoo interceptors were on 24/7 alert with multiple daily sorties on full afterburner, and the runway was next to the barracks. Whatever it was that I saw in A.P. that day was worse.
